Emanuella De Lucia Rolfe (Ema) is a Senior Research Fellow in Global Health and Musculoskeletal Epidemiology at the Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre, Human Development and Health. Her research focuses on muscle health, physical function, and body composition across the life course, with particular emphasis on sub‑Saharan Africa.
Her work within the MUFASSA study (Muscle Function, Ageing and Sarcopenia in Sub‑Saharan Africa) integrates body composition, physical function, cardiometabolic markers, and metabolomics to investigate sarcopenia, obesity, and functional decline in older adults.
Emanuella has strong expertise in body composition and obesity research, developed through her previous role leading the Anthropometry Platform at IMS Epidemiology Unit, Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge. There, she developed and evaluated methods for assessing body composition at populatio level and co‑developed the MRC–NIHR DAPA Measurement Toolkit, a free web‑based resource for the assessment of diet, physical activity, anthropometry, and body composition that supports research capacity and knowledge exchange.
Her research interests include early‑life influences on later health, population differences in body composition and metabolic risk, and the development and innovation of low‑burden methods to assess body composition and functions, including 3D imaging and wearable technologies.
